“ISIS reinforcements have arrived via the desert road from Palmyra to eastern Suweida.”
BEIRUT – Druze residents along the northeastern edge of Syria’s Suweida province have mobilized to defend their region against ISIS amid reports the militants are preparing a major assault.
“ISIS reinforcements have arrived via the desert road from Palmyra to eastern Suweida,” an activist said a little over a week after the group briefly seized the Druze village of Al-Huqf in a surprise raid.
The administrator of the Al-Swedaa Syria Facebook page told ARA News that “there are large gatherings of the group’s [fighters] with weapons and […] military vehicles that were seized in Iraq.”
The media activist, who chose not to reveal his name, said that the ISIS members were “stationed in the Al-Qasr area to the east of the village of Al-Huqf.”
The group has “13 tanks, 10 Hummers, and hundreds of fighters,” he added.
The report comes after Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat said on Sunday that ISIS fighters had positioned in numbers along the Suweida province’s eastern border in a swathe of territory stretching approximately 150 kilometers.